Low-paid workers are far less likely than those on higher salaries to have a workplace pension, according to a TUC report.

Even when people on low earnings do belong to a pension, their employers make smaller contributions.

Just 14pc of men and 24pc of women earning less than £300 a week belong to a workplace pension, the TUC said. By contrast, 74pc of men and 82pc of women on £600 or more do belong to a scheme.

Part-time workers in the private sector are even less likely to have a pension. Only 8pc of male part-timers belong to a scheme, compared with 17pc of women. It's a very different picture in the public sector, however – here, 73pc of male part timers and 58pc of the female counterparts have a pension.

Overall, nine in 10 public sector employees are in a scheme, compared with fewer than half – 42pc of men and 35pc of women – in the private sector, according to the report.

Low-paid workers who are saving into a workplace pension are also likely to have lower combined employer and employee contribution rates than better-off staff. Nearly half (48pc) of those earning less than £200 a week have total contribution rates of less than 8pc, compared with fewer than a quarter (23pc) of those earning more than £500 a week.

Brendan Barber, the TUC's general-secretary, said: "It is shocking that fewer than one in four people earning less than £300 a week are saving into a workplace pension scheme.

"Even those low-paid workers who are saving are more likely to have low employer and employee contribution rates that make it far harder to build an adequate pension pot when they retire."

He added: "Auto-enrolment will help reverse some of these worrying trends by getting more people to save. But we shouldn't be under any illusion that it alone can deliver the level of income that most people expect when they retire."